Congested Infrastructure

On occasion, Network Rail may be constrained in its ability to meet competing demands for infrastructure capacity; particularly in locations where network bottlenecks exist or where demand for access to the infrastructure exceeds the existing capacity of that section of the network infrastructure. In such cases, the Railway Infrastructure (Access and Management) Regulations 2005 (the Regulations) require Network Rail to declare these areas of infrastructure to be congested.

On 16 October 2006, Network Rail published its 2008 Network Statement, within which we declared three areas of Britain’s railway infrastructure to be congested in accordance with the Regulations:

• Gospel Oak to Barking
• Reading to Gatwick Airport
• Barassie Junction / Kilmarnock / Newton Junction / Mauchline Junction to Gretna Junction (known as the Glasgow and South Western or the G&SW route)

Following the making of this declaration, we have undertaken a capacity analysis study for each of the areas that were declared as being congested in order to identify the reasons for the congestion and the measures which might be taken in the short and medium term to relieve that congestion.

The documents which are set out below (which have been prepared in consultation with the Department for Transport and Transport Scotland as appropriate) are the outputs of these studies.

Gospel Oak to Barking Capacity Analysis
Reading to Gatwick Airport Capacity Analysis
G&SW Capacity Analysis